Some Assembly Required

by Arin Andrews
Hennepin County Library hardcover 239 pages
genre: non-fiction memoir

A student requested this title, which was not in my collection, so I got it from the public library for her. I was curious (especially with all the recent press about Caitlyn Jenner), so I renewed it and read it myself. Arin was born Emerald, but never liked the girly dress-up (including pagaents) during her childhood. She was what I think of as a tomboy. As a teen, she struggled with her identity and sexual orientation. Eventually, Arin and mom went to a therapist to talk through some of the issues arising.

As of the writing of this book (2014), Arin had been taking hormone therapy and had "top surgery," but had not yet had "bottom surgery." This was an interesting (and to me, sad) book. I'm glad I'm aware of it, because it is well-written and could be a helpful book for kids struggling with LGBTQ issues and needing support.

There were a lot of passages that I thought about tagging, but I'll just include this one. It's worth thinking about and talking about. As Emerald, this child attended a Christian school with traditional Bible-based beliefs.

"For all the religion I was faced with at Lincoln, I was starting to realize that I felt much more spiritual when I was in the woods or any other sort of natural surrounding. The feel of bark against my cheek while I was up in a tree gave me more peace than scripture ever did. It was becoming increasingly harder for me to ignore the hypocrisy of the students at my school - they claimed to be Christians, but it was in image only. The fact that they could quote the Bible and showed up at church every Sunday didn't prevent them from being relentlessly cruel."